Welcome to Fantasy Hockey Life, presented by fan Tracks. Here Shitques he your
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off hats, A step hit on, stay lock. Here's your hosts,
Jesse Severe and Victor Nuno Fantasy Hockey Live. Right here, you're looking at
Jesse Severe from band tracks and right over there Victor Nuno from ep rink side.
Victor, how you doing. I'm doing awesome, Jesse. I'm living
the dreams. I'm really excited to focus our attention this week to the draft.
But before we do that, we have one I have one more weekend
to enjoy being a super fan of the forty nine ers. At this point,
I've resigned myself to the Niners losing, so I'll just be happy if
be surprised if they pull it off. But I'm expecting an l here,
which is fine. But it's gonna be fun to for them, and yeah,
we'll see how it goes. How annoyed are you about all the constant
Taylor Swift involvement with the football this season. Oh, I'm not. I'm
not annoyed at all. I like that it's getting the attention. It doesn't
bother me? Does it bother you? Oh? No at all. I
think it's hilarious how they show her on screen for sixty seconds of a three
hour game and people lose their mind. I don't really, I don't care
at all. It's just funny how everyone is so upset about it. It's
a gatekeeper issue, and yeah, it's no good. That's our right.
It's entertainment people. Sometimes sports can be entertainment and it can be Okay,
we don't have to be so serious. Why so serious, Victor? There
are places that people can go if all you want to do, No,
that's not true. If mostly what you want to do is talk hokey and
a little bit of shenanigans too, we leave that open for people. You
can join our discord server. It's free. We have a free discord server
and all you have to do is email us Fantasy HOCKEYLFE at gmail dot com
or hit one of us up on x at fan Hockey Life or at Victor
Nuno twelve. There's always stuff hopping as we get toward the end of the
fantasy hockey season, a lot of people putting up there. What do you
think of this trade? What do you think of that trade, getting advice
from very knowledgeable people who like to tune in and support their opinions. So
that is a cool thing that people could do. And if you're really like,
oh man, it's time for me to sell, it's the deadline.
I need to know whether I should value certain prospects highly, what I should
do, what I should do with draft picks. You can always look at
some of the cool stuff in the patreon victor tell them about that. Yeah,
lots of great stuff with the Patreon. We have patroon cast. We
have the ability to play in the tidy, which is getting going here with
the playoffs, and we certainly have a wait list. Starting for next season,
we'll be opening a new so that'll be really fun. And you have
access to the prospect ranks. You can have one on one sort of session
with one of us to help figure out what to do with your team,
or you know, get some personalized advice. There's also the ability to DM.
I know a lot of people know this that your league mates are everywhere,
so it's hard. It's hard to get some unbiased opinions about trades and
what to do with teams, and that's something you can do. So if
you're interested in any of that. You want to support the show, you
can do that at patreon dot com slash Fantasy Hockey Life. I'll tell you
what. There was a guy in there this week asking to join the tidy,
asking if there's a way you can get in. That guy warms the
hackles of my cold heart, Fctor. If somebody is in February asking to
join a league, knowing that in February a team you're picking up is probably
not the best team. That guy is the new of MVP, as far
as I'm concerned, very good on that. People are already ready to start
thinking about joining next year, and we will expand we will have replacements.
There will be opportunities, Victor, Today is the day I've been waiting for.
It's a day I've been selling to my friends. We're going to be
doing something a little bit different. We welcome to the show a man who
knows his NHL rookie Draft. It is Hattie Callikesh of Dabber Prospects. Hattie,
how you doing, I'm doing very good? How about you? Good
good today, sir? We are doing a different kind of rookie draft preview.
Someone say that this was the role I was born to play. I'm
gonna play dumb and my friends. I have a number of friends who you
know, and some of our listeners are approaching this topic. They're not as
familiar with the subject matter. We could go back and forth and just get
into the depth about some of these guys, but we're going to try to
take it down a notch, take it back a notch, and say,
if you're just getting into this rookie draft, you're just getting to know this
play, what is the basic trajectory and shape of this twenty twenty four NHL
rookie draft that we're going to watch in the summer and then we're going to
be drafting players in the fall because people need to start preparing, need to
start trading for draft picks, all of those types of things. And I
am going to effectively be interviewing Hattie and also Victor to some extent. Victor
has got some good observations. He's going to bring it in as well.
Hattie, are you up for this unusual exercise? Absolutely? Always am.
Hatti's a good sport, all right. I will start out with the obvious
question that the listeners are going to want to know, just briefly, who
are the really elite top names in the twenty twenty four NHL Draft? What
optimistic future projections would you have on them? I know that we're going to
start here. Probably, I'm guessing that your number one is going to be
maclan Celebrini. Tell us a little about where he fits in. Yeah,
so Celebrini is by far and away the best player in this draft. There
isn't There's a significant gap for maybe between one and two. And what makes
the Labrini really interesting is just that there are so many different areas of his
game that can hit. He's already just a lethal rush scorer. He terrifies
defenses off the rush. He's constantly attacking downhill, attacking opponents feet off the
rush, cutting inside, slowing down the pace and speeding it back up.
His understanding of how to use his feet is just out of this world.
On top of that, he's added the cycle game to his play. He's
able to hit and get involved on the ford check and lift sticks and cut
inside that kind of stuff. So there are just so many different areas of
Celebrini's game that can become NHL tools or that already are. So he's just
such an already well rounded player with the upside as a shooter, as a
passer, as a stick handler, and as a rush chance creator to become
one of the best players off the rush in the NHL. After that,
you have Ivan Demidov, who you know. With Demetov, what's really interesting
is he's by far and away the best tick handler in this draft, and
he's got insane vision off the rush as well. He's able to feel pressure
on his back and feel the fourth man on the off the rush really well.
And beyond that, he just he's the only player I've ever really seen
since I've started scouting that reminds me of Pavo Doatsuk in terms of just wriggling
out of pressure, ridiculously finding ways to just escape the smallest gaps. Escape
through the smallest gaps, and he'll be surrounded by three guys, he'll find
a way to go through them and throw a pass pinpoint on teamate stick.
But also has that defensive element. He's not really refined on that end,
but the effort is there, the engagement is there, and in the NHL
he it's already clear that his positioning is ahead of his peers. Now it's
not a KHL level tool, let alone an NHL level tool yet, but
he can get there. He's got the foundations for it on top of being
a real good offensive piece. And then you've got a bunch of defensemen.
You can get into those as well. But I'd say still bring in dimidolv
Er two for me, the two kind of jewels of the straft in terms
of elite potential, elite talent, and victor. I know you had some
thoughts about where these guys might place as people are trying to contextualize and figure
out where these guys will fall in the fantasy hockey landscape, especially into the
future. I know you had some observations there. Yeah, I think we're
going to get into the defenseman soon, and I definitely I'll spill the beans
a little bit. I do think this is a great draft to get a
defenseman for lots of teams, which isn't always the case. But the forwards
that HATI mentioned are all world and so a lot of people tend to like
to get their forwards, and I know some people who kind of don't favor
defenseman as much for fancy because they just they do take a little bit longer
that is true, but there aren't as many super high end forwards, but
the two that Hati mentioned are just amazing. The thing about Celebrini is that's
not really a choice for most people because you either have number one or you're
not getting Celebrini basically, So if you have number one, your decision is
very easy. And his comps are insane. He's like breaking Mason Black's chart
because his P and HI right now is one hundred twenty three, I think
as I'm looking at it right now, So it's just it's insane. All
of his comps are superstars, Hall of famers. But Demidov is a little
bit more interesting because his equivalency is really high if you look at the Hockey
Prospecting Model. But we know that MHL league is wonky and some of the
competition is just poor and he's just toying with them on a nightly basis,
and I would just love to see him in the KHL because we've learned a
lot more. I'm sure Howdy can agree that we just it's hard to know
exactly how everything's going to transit. It looks like it will, just the
way that he the skills that he has is how he mentioned, but we
don't really know the answer to that. So that's what I'm most interested to
find out about Demodov is what he can do. And one thing that I
wanted to point out is that there's a lot of player comps here. A
lot of them forv Demidov or are insane. They're the same as Celebrini is
basically like Gretzky, McDavid Hughes, Patrick Kine. But if you look at
Chase McCollums car he has some really interesting more I think, I would say
realistic comps for guys like this, and a couple of the ones that he
looks a little bit more like in this model are like Maverick Bork, Matti
Benier's Joshua was saying, and so some of these kind of when you read
all these, you take a step back and say, Okay, these aren't
as like amazing as some of the other ones. So I think it gives
you just a little bit more perspective on I think the range of outcomes for
Demidov is just much much higher, whereas with Celebrini, he's a one or
two seed, but most likely just a one seed that's going to plan in
the NHL for a decade and you don't really have a lot of questions about
his production. But with Demodov, there are some questions and there's some potential
for bust. It's not very high, I would say, but since we
haven't seen it against a higher quality of competition, I think they're just a
little bit more worry in the sense of maybe this isn't going to be amazing,
like if everything doesn't translate perfectly well, I don't know if thoughts on
that. Hotey, Oh, for sure. With Celebrini, he's pretty much
a plug and play and he's a player who I wouldn't put in the obviously
the BEDARDA, McDavid and Matthews category, but I put him in the kind
of notch just under that the Stamkosis and he Shures and those kinds of players.
And I wouldn't say he's a generational prospect, but he's definitely a player
who is a very safe bet to score over eighty points eighty points a season,
like he's got that potential and just a really really mature game for his
age. I mean at the World Juniors he was Canada's best player. With
bu he's their best player wherever he plays, he just takes control of the
team and dominates the tempo of it. And when you have a player that
understands tempo that it's really good for his game to get in the NHL right
away because that's where you tempo is the most tested, and he needs that
test already, like he's too good for the NCAA. So the next step
is there. With Demidov. I think it's not only the fact that he's
toying with his competition right now. For me, of the main issue is
what is he learning in the NHL right now? The answer is not that
much. There There isn't a survival barrier for him that he say that he
has to cross, that he has to learn to overcome in order to thrive
and evolve as a player. He's just doing his thing. But it's really
fun to watch him put up two and a half points a game in the
MHL. It's fun to watch. I just I don't know about how much
that's good for his game. But overall, I'm not too worried because Demodov
has really good adaptability and I don't think he will have much of an issue
once he gets to the KHL regular time, I don't think he's gonna have
much of an issue really adapting to that style, adapting to what the circumstances
are there, the added pressure, the more physical play, the additional along
the board touches that you get in the GHL. I think that he won't
have much of an issue with that because he's so good with his back to
the play. Like I said, he can just feel pressure on its back
really well and understand what move to pull off to get off the boards.
Overall, I'm not too worried about Demodov's projection, as he claims climbs the
ranks, but definitely Celebrini has elements to his game that put him in that
plugging play scenario, where as Demidov, i'd say, is about two maybe
three years away, so there's a statificant gap there. And also we can
get into the defenseman. They're really fun for this class. I don't know
if any one of them is going to be ready next year, but they're
still fun to talk about. Yeah, that's definitely the next place I want
to stop. We know some drafts are heavy in one position, summer in
others. I look back at twenty twenty two, I remember that was a
year Victor was really preaching, go for the defenseman. You had Simon nmech
David, You're at Chick, Kevin Korchinski, Pavelo, Minchikov, all go
right there in the top ten picks and some other guys even probably who will
make a pick an impact later on. So I'm hearing Victor, and I'm
also hearing you Hatty say that this is a good year for defenseman after maybe
those first two forwards, correct me. If it's further down, then the
top two forward or further down then pass forward three. But how do these
top defensemen this year? Who are they and how do they compare to recent
years drafts? Depending on who he asks, You're gonna have different opinions on
that. Now, Well, for me at three and four, after celebrating
the meat off, I have Zang Perek and Zev Buyam for me, the
two with the most offensive upside in this draft. But there are about three
or four names that are other than those that are also in this conversation.
We have Sam Dickinson, who's a big, safe, left handed defenseman who
plays really good defensively but still needs to learn how to make effective decisions.
Who's also in that conversation. He's playing in Michigan State right now, is
a big right handed defenseman. He's putting up over a point per game in
the SaaS a rookie, which is obviously very interesting. But he's another player
who has a combination of fluidity and purpose and drive in his game that's really
interesting, but the decision making is really inconsistent, although I will say recent
viewings have been a lot more optimistic on that side. And then you can
get into Anton Salaiev, who's the biggest player in this draft at six seven
to two oh six, big left handed defenseman playing in the KHL right now.
Top four minutes in the KHL, which isn't easy, and he's handling
them pretty well. But I'm a bit more skeptical with him. I've seen
him in the top two, top three on a lot of drafts. He's
thirteenth on my board. And yeah, he's another player who is panicky with
the puck, either at the offensive blue line or in his own zone.
Just panics a tiny bit and throws pucks up the first lady seas just to
get himself out of trouble instead of thinking his way out of trouble. So
that's one kind of qualm I hav in his game. But a six foot
seven player should not be able to move like Saliv does. He is extremely
fluid. His backwards skating is ridiculous. I think if he's developed well,
he can become the best gap closer in world hockey. Like he can close
gaps already with so much effectiveness, and if you add, if you teach
him a bit of composure, a bit of poise, if he can turn
those that effective gap closing into puck retrievals and then offensive transitions, now we're
talking perhaps a top pair defenseman. But it's a really tough thing to teach.
I've watched Justin barn since his draft year and that's always been his issue
and that's never gone anywhere. He's still extremely panicky, So it's a difficult
thing to teach out of a player you need to you essentially need to have
a high panic threshold from the start, and Saliv doesn't have that. But
yeah, that's the kind of glut of defensemen that I say are almost certainly
going to be gone by ten And you can put him in any order,
depend on depending on which scout you ask. A lot of them will have
to live and lift Shinoff at the top, then a bunch of guys in
Saint Perek at the end. I prefer z ain't Perek, just because I've
seen nothing in his game that indicates to me that there's an issue with his
defensive game. I think that's been overblown and he's the most poised and creative
offensive defenseman I've seen in a long while, like at least since Luke Ques,
and maybe even then he might be a bit more creative and poised with
the puck. There's a lot of upside with this kid. I think that
the best case scenario with Perek is you have a point per game offensive defenseman.
That's the ceiling, but the floor is a bit contentious. I still
think that there's enough there with Perek that he's worth the swing at three.
Yeah, and that point per game is an extremely important point. And I
don't know if the if you have thoughts because some of these guys, nhlgms
are going to value a guy who can play those top minutes. If you
thought you could get Jacob Slaven at this point in the draft, you would
be just over the moon. I would think as an NHL GM as a
Fantasy GM, probably a little less so because old Jacob Slaven the things that
he does great doesn't necessarily translate to the game that we're playing. But a
victor, what do you react to with this top defensive class? You said
you love it? Right, Yeah, there's a lot, And I definitely
think that the best fantasy defenseman is not going to be the first one taken
on draft day. I think, as Hotti mentioned, guys like Sam Dickinson
just has such a projectable profile, the way that he's already playing, the
way he skates, the way he defends like he he might go first Salia
with the he's so raw, but the physical tools are insane, like the
skating and size. You just people if someone's gonna take a chance on him
relatively early and bet that they can mold in, to mold him into the
next cident of Chawa basically, and all those other things that need to work
need work, will come and that's the bat that they'll take. But yeah,
I don't think those guys are going to be super good in fantasy.
I definitely agree that the two best for me are PreK and Bulliam and their
equivalencies, right, now are totally insane, Like they're both the p and
H Leaves are both over one hundred. And the thing I like most about
Bulliam and I like both these guys, it's hard to choose. They're a
little different. But the thing I like about Bulliam is that he's playing in
college a more difficult level. You saw him at the World Juniors like he
was. They were talking about how small and undersized and how young in some
respects like Bullyam the blue line was for the Americans, and he was at
times their best defenseman. It was crazy like how good he was and under
pressure, his skating and his Physicality's not the biggest guy, but he used
his physicality, not over like he doesn't chase hits or anything like that,
but he knows how to separate players from the puck. And I think the
other thing about William is he keeps getting better too throughout the year, and
he's just trending up and up and up. So you love to see that
from a from any player in the draft. And so I'm a little skeptical
just because Denver is such a good team and they win a lot and score
a lot, But I don't think you can hold that against him either,
that's not his fault and he's doing what he needs to do. I think
that maybe there's less dynamic ability with Bulliam, but it's just overall so consistent
and he just makes such good plays that's very projectable. With Perrek, I
think there's some lessons here with the previous Saganaw defenseman that was so amazing in
Minschikov, in the sense that they I see some similarities just in the way
that they have this care free way that they play and they try a lot
of things, and Saganaw I think supports that, which is great. Like
I think the system that they play enables players to be free and just have
fun and try things and prick doing that, and it's really cool. And
so the question is can he be rained in a little bit and taught to
be a little bit more consistent and safe, And I'm sure that he can't.
That's not a hard thing to do. That's what is hard is to
teach someone like Sam Dickinson to be dynamic and exciting and make these crazy,
insane plays that PreK is doing. I don't think that's going to happen.
You take PreK for what he is and you know that you can probably mold
him into raining it in a little bit, being a little bit more safe,
and I think you have, like Potty said pop point per game defenseman,
I don't know. I'm going to have a hard time passing at PreK
if I draft in the three to five range and fantasy, just because the
upside is crazy, Like what forward? There are a couple forwards, but
there aren't too many forwards that have more upside even than PreK after the first
two that we mentioned, Demidoph and Celebrinis. So yeah, I think it'd
be hard to pass on him in that range. Thoughts on that, how
do you guys? I heard you reacting to some of that. Oh,
for sure, Zee William is really fun. I think I can start there.
He's really enjoyable to watch because there's a fluidity to his game. Even
though he's not a good I wouldn't call him a great skater, he's a
good skater. The lateral agility concerns me sometimes, and for a guy who
loves to move laterally so much, I feel like if he can improve his
edgework on lateral moves like that's terrifying. He's already so good at it that
like, if you add that next layer to his game, he becomes even
better. Here reminds me of Dentson Matteichuk. Sometimes. It's just really funny
that she brought brought up Pavelo Minchikov as a comparable to Zaint Perrek because they
both went pretty much back to back in their draft years, right, And
yeah, those two are fairly comparable to me, and we saw it,
like you mentioned with Minchikov, you know, raining him back was easy and
actually brought out an element of his game that wasn't a strength up until he
reached the NHL, which is his ability to discourage passes off the rush.
So somehow, sometimes you'll watch him pinch, you're you're like, what are
you doing? But then you realize that all he's doing is just discouraging a
pass that would aid the offensive transition for the opponent. Right, So he's
not pinching in order to pressure of a puck carrier. He's pinching just to
put himself in the lane between the puck carrier and the pass of this along
the boards, for example. So it's just a fake pinch. It's like
a pump fake that he does, and it just fully prevents a pass going
that way and forces a play towards the other side of the ice, and
that gives him time to then react, come back with his excellent skating and
make a play, which is This is something I could definitely see Zane correct
picking up and adding to his game and raining in a player like that and
making sure that he adds these elements to his game, like you said,
is so much easier than taking a Sam Dickinson and making an offensive dynamo out
of him. That's as much as I love Sam Dickinson, as much as
I love his skating and edgework and his defensive game and his breakout passing.
He'll join the rush and he'll take a shot, but he's not going to
dangle through two guys hit the net to score a backhand between the legs.
That's not his game. He's more of a meat and potatoes. He's a
meat and potatoes player who has in Parect's a bit more of a Michelin star
dish with Dickinson. If you're an NHL, if you're an NHL team,
meat and potatoes, you'll eat that. It's not overly complicated, but it'll
feed you with zain't Perrek. It'll be the most delicious thing you've ever seen,
but sometimes you're still hungry. That's the difference between them for me.
So it's intricate, but I find it really interesting, and it was ain't
Perek after this, Like Victor said, I don't even for points only.
I can't name you that many forwards in this class after Perrek that have a
point per game upside. Maybe a Berkeley Catton I would say, is probably
in there. But Cole Aija gonna have a twelfth overall. And I've soured
a lot on this game, and I think he has thirty to forty goal
upside, But eighty points, No, that's looking less realistic by the day
with Eijamin all right, And I think there should be a podcast called the
Fantasy Foodies. I like this. I like this whole thought process. It
sounds like we really have kind of a bumper crop of defenseman right before there,
Victor, do you have other guys that you would throw in aside from
this first group that we have, or other forwards that maybe are just right
in that next tier. Yeah, I think Hatty just mentioned Cole Eijerman.
I think we might as well talk about him because he is someone worth discussing
and has an insanely good shot, but everything else about his game is has
some questions, And as Otty said, he could score thirty thirty five goals
and end up with fifty five points and then you're like, that's disappointing because
you know you obviously need the assist to get to a more fantasy relevant And
from what I understand, some of his playmaking has gotten better. And it's
not like he's uninvolved defensively, like he's not a complete train rack. It's
just it he doesn't really do much before getting in position to shoot, because
that's really what he's good at. But I also think that's what he's being
asked to do, is go score, because that's what you're good at.
I was curious, so I just wanted to pull up comparisons to the other
cool caw Field, and I know you have a lot of thoughts on him,
Hadi, and they're not the same player. Cawfield is a much more
I'll that you talk about Caffield, but he's actually quite a bit smaller.
As we know, Ierman doesn't have the size issues. He's six foot col
caugh Field five foot seven, but Cawfield also had the shot and there are
questions about him and he fell, And I think there might be some rhymes
here because Cole Eiserman will probably seems like he might fall in this draft,
maybe for different reasons, but the upside is huge. So in their draft
seasons, the equivalency is higher for Ierman at seventy two percent star potential,
and they both play at the us n TDP, which I think there's some
fun rhymes here, so that the equivalency is a bit higher for Ierman,
but obviously we know a little bit about what's happening with Cole. I also
picked up some of the so some of the comps for Iiserman are Keller and
Vincent Lecavalier, which obviously would be amazing outcomes. And then I looked at
Chase mccullums Graf and he has some other comps like Jeff Skinner, Jacob Parrot
that one hadn't worked out so well, Jordan Everley Chas Lucius still to be
determined but doesn't look super great, and then Dylan Gunther's and Keep Ferbeller's Oliver
Walstrom. These are the usn TDB busts that people often talk about the guys
that didn't really quite make it. Why don't you tell us a little bit
about these comparisons and what why We might want to wait a little bit on
Iiserman, but there still might also be some value there, right, Yeah,
for sure. The names I keep coming back to when I'm watching Cole
Isiam mainly I think about Oliver Wallstrom, Arthur Khaliev, Jacob Parrot. As
you mentioned, these are guys who I understand why there's a hesitancy with Iiserman.
But there's a reason why I'm so torn with Ijaman is because he has
something that these guys didn't. These guys were all good off puck movers that
found offensive really well and used their shot really well, but didn't have much
to surround and uplift that skill set. But with Eisaman, there's one thing
that is really particular in his game that I think he has that none other
of the players I just mentioned had, and it's his ability to consistently drive
the net and make himself an option for a tip for a rebound. He's
a player who drives the net relentlessly and consistently miss Brown and the elite prospects
rankings video called him a one second player in terms of in the second before
he gets a pass up until the second after he shoots it, he's the
best player in this draft. Everything outside of that, he's probably in the
thirty to forty range. Like, the playmaking is decent but not overwhelming.
The defensive game, it's not nonexistent, but it's definitely not where it should
be at this stage. There's a lot of, you know, catching up
to do on that side. Even the physical game. He's six foot almost
two hundred pounds. He's built like a tree stump, but doesn't use it
all that He's mainly just absent mindedly leaning on the first shoulder that comes his
way and trying to find a way to create off that instead of just leveraging
his weight properly. And yeah, overall, there's a lot of concerns.
But the one thing that keeps nagging at the back of my head that makes
me think, ooh, you might regret ranking him twelfth overall is that consistent
willingness and drive for the net. That that's a thing that keeps coming back
to my mind as like a just like a little scouting bug at the back
of my head. That just keeps nagging at me. But I'm having a
lot of trouble with Isiaman in my viewings because the games he's played with Hagens
he's been worse than the games he's played with Baneric and Stiga and Brodie Ziemer
and those guys. It's so confusing to me because Hagen's is such a good
offensive transition player. He takes the brunt of offensive transitions and consistively finds players
in stride. And the fact that Eisaman has struggled more with Hagens in my
viewings and with other guys, that makes me wonder how effective he'll be at
the top of a lineup with players that are of that caliber. Whereas with
Cold Kawfield, Cawfield was Cawfield learned everything you needed to learn as a five
foot six, one hundred and forty pound player in order to overcome those size
discrepancies, and there are a competitive advantage here. Isiaman never really had to
learn much because he's always been heavier than a lot of people, so he's
never had to learn those adaptive skills, that ability to separate in space,
that ability to go from reception to shot in a millisecond when the pass is
not cleaning your wheelhouse. There's a lot of things that Cole Cawfield learned in
spite of his size, and actually because of his size, that Isamin never
has had to learn. So for me, there's a gap there between my
evaluation of the two. Cawfield has a lot to his game that Isiamin doesn't.
But at the end of the day, like I said, he's a
player I'm really torn on and I might just flip around on at the end
of the draft if I see enough viewings that kind of confirm the doubts that
I'm having. But for the moment, he's at twelve for me, Yeah,
I absolutely loved that. When Mitch said that too, that really stood
out to me because, and I think it's worth saying a little bit more
because it was some of these USNTDP guys. The team is like an all
star team, right, so they have a lot of talent, and so
some of the forwards can look really good even though they don't work so hard
to score. And I think that was the case with Bellows and Wallstrom,
whereas Iiserman even though he is really talented, and some of the other forwards
like you mentioned he in particular works really hard and finds that soft spot really
well. He works hard in that second or two right before he scores or
gets a good shot off, because that's what he's really good at, and
he gets to the high danger scoring areas a lot more and it's a little
bit easier in the sense of the size. So although I agree with you,
he hasn't had to work on other parts of his games. I was
listening. I forget who the interview was, but it was one of the
other draft eligible prospects and they were talking about how they played against Izerman when
he was when they were like eight or nine, and how Eiserman was already
bigger and better than everyone else, and like you said, when you're already
that, you tend not to have to work on certain parts of your game
because it's just so much better everyone else. I wanted to ask you about
some of the other defensemen. There's so many defensemen and I don't think we're
going to have time to cover all of them. But there's two in particular
that I think are going to be very interesting, and that's because they're both
injured. Right. So, Adam kV Harre, you and Aaron Are sorry.
Adam Herecheck and Aaron kV harre You both coming into this season, people
were thinking top ten, maybe even top five picks. They look really good.
Obviously, we know Adam's brother, David ear Check, was drafted pretty
high and is on the borderline of breaking into the NHL, and he's got
good size as well, six two, one hundred and seventy pounds. I
think what's different about Adam though, too, is that he's really he's even
younger. David was old for his age and Adam is young, but like
his brother, suffered an injury at the World Junior again to his knee.
Just terrible stuff. But he also wasn't scoring even though he was playing in
the top check league. And then kV harre You is a little bit older
for the draft class, but he has some size issues at five to ten
hundred and sixty five. But he was playing in the Liga last season and
this season, but unfortunately had an injury there. So these two I think
are interesting because I think they have some pretty good upside, but we don't
really know how their draft season went right, at least not fully, so
they might slide a little bit and that could present some really good value too
for fantasy Police. Tell us a little bit about those two for sure.
So I still have Adamirchek ranked fourteenth to spite everything. I also have r
on Qv Harry at twenty third. These are two players who are fundamentally different
for me. Adam Irachek for a player who's six' one one fifty,
he's extremely violent even in the Czech Pro League. Like he he won't necessarily
chase hits, but any time he has an opportunity to lay the shoulder into
a player hard, no matter what position they're in along the boards, it
doesn't matter to him, He'll try it. He's also really good at feeling
pressure on his back. He's really good at spinning off of pressure and making
a quick pass. I just don't think there's all that much creativity and awareness
to his game on the with the play in front of him, but he's
got enough tools there to develop into a really effective i'd say, second pair,
two way defenseman. I like the breakoup passing. I like that the
simple and easy plays he makes, and I like the way he joins the
rush occasionally and tries things. I just he's very different from David Eearcheck.
David Earcheck was all tools. This is a player who was massive, had
a huge reach, a booming shot, great hands, really overwhelming forward skating
off the rush as well. Their check's a bit more intricate and refined than
that. In terms of his overall decision making, I'd say he's less raw
mentally, whereas David ear Check was less raw physically. Year Check has a
lot of weight to add, definitely some core strength as well. You can
tell that when he's skating it's it's like there's a lack of power in a
stride, so there's weight to add. There's a muscle to add there that
can make him a really effective skate or a really effective checker and hitter and
gap closer. Overall, I think there's still really solid second can line upside
with eer A Check. I just I've heard some people say that he's got
top pair upside and that it could be a really good power play defenceman.
I don't really see it all that much. And the knee injury kind of
throws a wrench in things because if it is the type of injury that it
seemed to be, this is a type of injury that can reroute a career
and make you play a completely different style. It's a big risk, but
I think there's enough upside there with your check and enough certainty as well to
make him wor at the top fifteen pick. Whereas with kiv Harry, he's
excellent at two things, the processing and the breakout like in terms of his
passing ability. Outside of that, there's a lot of inconsistencies in this game,
and he's the one player that I'd say people talk about Zane Perrek being
in the mold of Eric Branstrom and the types of defensemen that were drafted in
the first round that ended up not panning out. I'd say kiv Harry's a
lot more in that boat than zat Perek. Qv Haru resembles a lot more
player like Eric Branston than Zane Perrect does. So that's where the concern is
for me. But if you can develop them well, if you can teach
them the right things, you've got an excellent skater and an excellent great breakout
passer who can if you bring him up to just an average level defensively,
physically and in terms of overall decision making, then you've got a second pair
of defenseman. I just think that the risk is higher with qv Har.
You for sure them with your check. That's how i'd say it. Yeah,
and I'm not chasing either of these guys, but I am really hoping
that your check falls, and mainly I'm more interested in him. But I
definitely think that if you have a mid first round pick, or depending on
how the size of your league it might if he ends up going fourteen sixteen
something like that, could you could end up getting him in that range and
that could end up being really good. Just keep an eye on that.
All right, very good. We've gone over some of the top names in
this draft, especially some of this bumper crop up defenseman. We're going to
take a break, come back and ask a few more questions. See you
have some ranks only all right, have some. I'm gonna move around some
of these questions we've talked about because just the way it's flowing. I think
we've talked about that top two forward group. We've talked about Isserman being there
as that other forward unique prospect up there, and a lot of the defensemen.
Do you think that there are major tear drops in this draft pool?
Was there a group of guys and then beyond which there's a big drop.
I heard one prospect watcher on a recent podcast say right around fifteen there might
be a big drop in the talent pool of the draft, or observers are
saying that, do you have you heard anything like that? Do you observe
anything that there are some some continental shelf drops. Yeah, I'd say there's
a clear top nine for me right now, and that could move to ten
if Cole Eiserman picked things up. But for me, there's a clear top
nine. I wouldn't say there's a massive drop after fifteen because for me,
even after fifteen, I've still got guys like Nikita Artomanov, Tijaginmla Andrbasha Igor
Chernishev, Trek Parasak I'm a huge fan of, and obviously Luke Misa.
These are all players I have in the sixty and a twenty two range.
But I'd say there's a significant gap. I'd say between twenty two and twenty
three once you had twenty three around TV. Haryu is the first player for
me at twenty third overall of a tier of about ten fifteen players, and
then it drops again. But I'd say that there's a clear first overall pick.
There's a two to nine and I'd say ten to twenty two is pretty
similar. But I would still say that there's a gap between fifteen and sixty
and for me between Connolly and Trevor Conley and Luke Misa Trevor Connley being the
last player of my third tier. Right, there are shelf drops. I
don't think they're as significant as people are making them out to be. But
at some point you hit a point in the rankings where you've run out of
the really interesting projects and you get into the either long shots or safe bets,
and that's i'd say around twenty three, that's where I'd say that's where
the kiv har Use, the carter Yakamchuk is. In that conversation Michael Hage,
there's a bunch of these names of players who just are either very safe
players or these high risk, high reward bets, whereas before that you've still
got a relative amount of safety with your middle six top six projection players before
I we'll talk about this more later, but your ranks are going up somewhere
in the Dabber extended universe, right, are people are going to be able
to see these ranks that you have up there. Yeah, if these are
my personal rankings, I post them on Twitter. But our Dubber Prospect team
just finished up a scouting meet to discuss our midseason rankings. Our Midsitian rankings
should be out around the weekend of for the weekend after after Valentine's Day.
That should be around where we put them out. We've had some kind of
setbacks with that family emergencies and the scouting team, the kind of thing,
but we're sorting things out. We should have those rankings out fairly soon.
And yeah, that's they're different than mys, my personal rankings, but we're
really excited about those. Everyone's put in a lot of work, so we'll
get those out pretty soon. Yeah, and usually we do the promos at
the end, but I thought this was a good chance. As we're talking
through these numbers. People, if you want the home if you want the
book that goes with the tape like that we had when we were kids,
you can make sure that you're reading at his Twitter in checking these guys out
so you can see where these ranks break out. I'm curious. One of
the things we like to talk about on this show a lot is the different
leagues that come in and the way that we ought to take the way we
ought to take some of these players, and the stats they do. And
obviously there's different projections. We don't need to go through all of them.
But do you think that this year there is any particular source of talent that
is above or below usual producing top prospects or top strength of prospects. The
WHL again is having Erika year. I'd also throw the NCAA there, because
it's pretty rare that we get three NCAA prospects. I mean, the last
time we saw that was the Michigan year with Beniers and Power and Lucus and
all that. But yeah, overall, I think this is a really good
group of WHL players. Kaiden Linstrom, Berkeley Catton and Tija Ginland, Drew
Basha Rider, Richie Trek Parasak. It's such a long, extensive list of
WHL ers that are really interesting in this draft. Another week draft for the
QMJHL, but that's going to change next year, and a surprisingly weak draft
for suites. I have one suite in my top thirty two, so yeah,
I'd also say Finland's in there as well. They've got a couple of
really interesting guys, but overall, I say the WHL takes that cake.
Even the players that are a bit lower in the ranks, I haven't heard
much. Many people throw a lot of praise and Miguel Marquez's way, and
he's been fantastic in recent viewings, and the USHL as well has been fairly
interesting. They have a couple of guys that say in my top forty that
usually the USHL, other than the ANTDP, doesn't really create that much much
talent usually, but this year he got Michael Hages with the Chicago Steele,
Sasha Bovar playing with Muskegan along with Matview Greedon who's also in that on that
team, and a couple names that are just starting to pop up John Mustard
at Waterloo, which by the way, elite name, Like just a fantastic
name, John Mustard, and yeah, other guys like that. So overall,
like it's just it's really interesting to see the USHL rowden a pool,
it's talent pool and not limit itself to being the ntdp's league. Right,
It's become a more well rounded league, which is good for everybody. Waterloo.
Yeah, yeah, that's back in my old stomping grounds where I grew
up. Yeah, Victor, any leagues that you're particularly excited about this year,
Yeah, I definitely agree with Hatty about the DUB has really been coming
on the last several years. And yeah, the OHL actually isn't super exciting
this year either. There but they have some some really good ones, so
that's good. But the depth maybe in terms of the forwards, it's it's
less exciting, I guess, I would say. But the defensemen really good,
and I also, yeah, I also think it's interesting they have we
have a couple of players who are in the National League, the Swiss League.
We have a couple of Swiss players that are top fifty ish, both
defencemen, and I just wanted to remind people of like how good that league
is, because I think a lot of people have this impression of like how
good the KHL is and how that's been trending down. We had Chase McCollum
on to talk about that, and if you look at he has some trends.
You can compare leagues over time, and one of the things I have
in the show notes here is the KHL versus the NL, and basically they
are similar now and the NL is right on par with the KHL. So
if you see some of the defensemen, some of the people that are doing
really well. The name to that stands out right now is danielle Ustenkoff Stinkoff.
I think you guys talked about him on the most recent to Locked on
Prospects YEP episode and so he and Leon Wigli, but he's playing in the
under twenty version. But still I think those two Swiss defenseman, you probably
should open your eye a little bit more to them, not you, Hattie,
but just the general audience because that league is really tough, and I
think the KHL it's still a really tough league, still impressive when we have
these guys like Salayev playing in the KHL. I'm not trying to take away
from that, but I think we should keep a little bit more praise on
that league. I also think, as you mentioned, the Swedes, and
we don't have that many Swedes, but that is a really tough league.
So anytime you see that, and even the J twenty I think that and
the hockeyhels Fensken that's a really strong program there, so players that come out
of there, and I think the biggest name Michael Brenzig Nargard guard, and
he's a really interesting player because he's I think he's going to go fairly high
just because he's he is going to be an NHL player, Oh yeah,
pretty much like already could probably play on a fourth line in the NHL.
But I also don't know that the upside for fantasy is super high with him.
So he's one of those guys that I think might just be better in
real life, but all so super impressive what he's doing in Sweden right now.
Yeah, it's interesting because the best Swedish league prospect right now is Norwegian.
So that's yes, it's like Swedish born players have Alfonse free in my
first round and that's it. Like that is not a good draft for Swedish
born players, but that's going to change next year. Next year there's a
handful of guys I think, headlined by Anton Frondel and Philip Eckberg for the
moment, but yeah, this year is just you've got two defensemen for me
my top forty that are Swedes. Outside of that, it's Lucas Patterson starting
to make some noise as well. Maybe he cracks my top forty, but
yeah, it's not the year for Swedes. I also just wanted to echo
the NC DOUBLEA thing people sometimes forget, like how hard it is to play
in the NC DOUBLEA, Like, oh, the fact that maclenn Celebrini at
seventeen is dominating this league that is usually I mean, you look at the
Quinnipiac team last year. I think their average age was like over twenty two
or something like that. Like they were old, big, strong, fast
team, and that's usually what college is. Like they're quite a bit older,
they're stronger, they spend a lot of time in the weight room.
So the NCAA you don't usually get too many draft eligibles, at least not
that are producing super highly. And we're just so lucky that we get to
see Celebrini and Liftzunov and William all kind of dominating. So I think that's
really huge. And yeah, the DUB I think there's like the quality of
the league can certainly matter, but that also doesn't mean that you should punish
players that are killing it, like peract that maybe it's not the best Oahl
year, but you still can't punish guys like that so good. So yeah,
definitely some of the leagues that you can track on more if you're really
looking for some scouting. We've covered the defenceman being particularly strong. It sounds
like the forwards there's a couple of particularly strong ones, but then maybe a
bit of a break before you get the other strongest members of the class.
And he takes on the goalies, Pattie, We got to ask about the
goalies. Nobody ever wants to talk about the goalies. Yes, because if
anybody drafts a goalie high, it's always a bad decision, unless there have
been a couple than that mid first round. But are you here in chatter
do you think that there's a couple of good goalies in this one? Yeah?
For sure. Ryerson Leanders is at the top of that list. He's
one of the smarter goaltenders that I've seen, really aware of where the puck
is and great anticipation as to where it's going. Almost never gets beat from
the point, and I believe he went on the fifteen start run recently with
the Mississaugus steel Heads, and that's not something you usually see with OHL goaltenders.
There's a decent amount of rotation in the OHL, so that gives you
an idea of how trusted he is by coaches, but he's fairly limited in
terms of technical ability. In terms of athleticism, I'd say that you start
talking about goalies around the fifty range. That's where I start getting comfortable with
goalies. And internally at Dauber prospects that are scouting and me and our goaltender
scout and I, Colin Hunter and I had a big discussion about which who
we like better between Ryerson Landers and Carter George. Who is the other kind
of goaltender In this conversation, I see Carter George reminds me a bit of
Mike Smith and his constant willingness to leave the net and make plays. And
I'm more on the Steve Dangle side of things, where I'm like, if
you're a goaltender, tend the goal. And it's caused some concerns this year
with Carter George, but overall I think that he's really smart with when and
how he chooses to leave his net, and he's really daring, like he'll
dangle a player. We're talking about a goaltender here. It's really strange and
funny to watch, but overall there's projectability there. He's definitely more of an
athlete than Landers. Definitely more technically capable than Landers, but the mental game
isn't as present for me as with Landers. And there's a name that's just
starting to pop up on rankings, and it's Marcus Goodlough out of Sweden,
massive goaltender. He's six foot six, one hundred and ninety two hundred pounds
something like that. He's a player that's fighting his weight on the way down.
He'll get to the butterfly and if he gets a shot high, he
needs to fight the weight of his arms to get his hands up. And
that's the only thing I say is a major concern in his game, because
he's another goaltender who tracks the puck extremely well, constantly aware of where it
is. He has active hands, so his hands constantly stay in front of
him, and he leads with his hands when he makes saves, which is
something I look for in goalies. And yeah, I think the raw upside
might be higher than with Goodlof, but the certainty that we have with Leanders
and Carter George's styles is really interesting. So I see, those are the
three goalies I'm willing to talk about right now, and I haven't watched much
of Emil Vinnie, who's also been in conversations out of Finland. But I've
heard good things so's I'd say he's in this conversation, but I'm more focused
on the North American side. I get some viewings here and there about these
guys, but Emil Vinie's the guy's on my scouting lists. All right,
Cool. Next, the thing I wanted to ask you about. I teased
that this earlier, and I don't know. I'm not sure how deep you
get into the fantasy side of things. I don't expect you to. But
do you think there are some guys in this draft who are going to put
up the box score stats but they won't necessarily be drafted as high just in
terms of their performance, just because of their fantasy profile or their their talent
profile. I guess I should say, yeah, I'd say Berkeley Katton's in
that conversation. He's a player who has fantastic dynamic ability. He's really pacy,
even though skating is not all that good. He plays at the highest
pace that he can handle, and he handles it really well. And yeah,
he's the type of player who can dangle through layers and get to the
net. And he's got a really good snapshot as well, so he's able
to release a shot in motion, which is another thing I look for.
Tarver Conley's in this conversation as well. I think that Conley has a lot
of offensive upside, and he's become a lot more defensively engaged and responsible as
of late. I have been really impressed with the level of effort that he's
putting on the backcheck. But he's still a player who he plays pond hockey
sometimes and that you need to bring that up a level or two to become
a more well rounded pro player. And the last player I throw in there
is probably Luke Misa misas he's probably the pasiest player in the draft. Like
the pace at which he plays, the pace at which he thinks, and
the way that he approaches the game is I'm going to accelerate the pace of
the play every chance I get repuck touch I get, I'm gonna find a
way to speed up the pace of play because he can handle that speed and
other players in this league can't. And yeah, overall, I think that
there's offensive upside there along with a lot of defensive responsibility. But I think
he's probably gonna get drafted in the sixties or seventies because he's undersize and because
he plays a particular style that doesn't really wows to but it doesn't make you
very safe as a coach in terms of sending him out there, even though
the numbers defensively are fantastic, even though the results defensively are great, I
don't think teams are as sold on his ability to play under physical pressure in
the NHL as I am. I think he's got no problem handling that.
But from what I've seen everywhere, he's a player is probably gonna be drafted
in the sixties and seventies and have him at sixteenth overall right now, because
the offensive upside's great, the defensive game is great, the work rate's great,
and again, paciest player in this draft, and I love speedy players.
That's the style play that I really value. So yeah, I got
the need for speed, Victor. Any reactions you want to do these or
other guys you want to prompt to get Hattie's takes on, I think in
terms of bash, I haven't done all that yet, but I did want
to tell people that we are working on these player cards through Fantasy Hockey life
where we are going to have bash rankings and tiers for players selfish, selfish,
break it down, skate fuck, don't bass. I think it's still
going to be there. Are you catch out for taking coach and coach dropping
for coach? Still shot bad bounce, that's a good breakaway get the bass
boys, but they have and maybe a good question for if it's there.
The only other thing I wanted to say about goalies too is that I don't
know. I don't know anything about these goalies right now, although I did
hear what Hotty said about Carter George, which is hilarious, just how he
likes to move the puck ground. But I also wanted to remind people,
Yeah, I don't usually draft goalies, but there are some marketing efficiencies with
overage European goalies, so that's something to look at. And there's we talked
about Thomas Chukhanik last episode. There's going to be some players taken later on,
probably in rounds four through seven that are probably over age goalies playing in
Europe or somewhere like that, and that might be someone worth taking a because
there's a better likelihood they'll work out and be they're much closer to being NH
already, So that's something to keep in mind. The next question I got
for you, I'm trying to figure out when I look at these gouting reports.
You've got some great information here. We're talking in terms of transition,
play and fee only back pressure in these types of things. But I'm curious
about keywords that you see in or that I should train on when I'm reading
your stuff about who is going to end up as a fantasy performer versus the
real life performer. Whenever I see two way, for example, I cringe
because I say, wow, that means defensive responsibility, which is going to
keep him on the ice, but might keep him off the score sheet,
or at least show that more of his value relative is coming from those types
of contributions. Are there words that I should look for decode in your amazing
analysis to determine the types of things that I'm curious about determining. Yeah,
dynamic and creative equals points only. That's where it starts. Anytime you see
dynamic, every player I qualify as dynamic in the Shraft Celebrini to meet Off,
Perrek, Caton Connolly, All these guys are great points only bets,
and when you see two way I wouldn't say it's necessarily that they're they're not
gonna put up points like i'd say Caden Lynchtrom's a really good two way player.
I think he's fantastic for bash and I also think he's a pretty good
bet for points only, like he's gonna get minutes. And there's a very
particular thing that Lynchrom does that I really like, and it's that he can
pucks just seemed to just glue to a stick. He'll get a rim,
he'll get a board pass in transition, like a stretch pass off the boards,
and he'll like let it slip between his legs and it'll just stick to
a stick. And it's just that's the thing that when you're six foot three,
six foot three and a half, like two hundred pounds, with that
good skating, with the ability to drop your weight and lean into players,
that particular detail being able to do that at a high speed, Katan Linstrom's
gonna score points in the NHL. So even though I qualify him as a
two way player as a really good bash bet, I still think that I
still think there's near a point per game upside with Kaden Linstrom, which for
a player of this caliber, you don't let him slip past ten in a
points only league anyway. Like, I don't think there are nine players that
are gonna put up more points than Linstrom and the draft. Yeah, it's
just things like that. Like I say, creative, dynamic or points are
the things you keep in mind for points only powerful strong skater. I'd say
something that you can put in the bash category because I think of the guys
that i'd select for bash, Lynstrom, Dickinson, Left, Shanov, Green
Tree, Brand, Secne Guard, all these guys are players that qualify still
like powerful strong skaters. Right, So those kinds of players tend to have
seamless transitions into a bottom six with the ability to climb the way up.
Any thoughts on that, victor any other keywords that we should be asking about
here, Yeah, No, I think those are really good ones. You
can see things like physical playmaking. Dual threat is something that is sometimes good
because if you want to fill out your points, you do need to be
a dual threat. It's really interesting because some players are really so good and
dimensionally. We talk about Cole Eiserman. That's usually what you look for is
because they have one translatable skill that they can lean on that'll make them in
NHL. Yes, he does. But then the other question is how you
look at someone like Seth Jarvis from a few years ago, and he didn't
have one amazing skill, but he thought the game exceptionally well and had really
good skills across the board. And sometimes you look at that player and you
think he doesn't have that one thing, but he has a lot of above
average skills. And sometimes it's hard to pick those players out because sometimes those
can be even more valuable because they can translate, they can refine all their
skills and the sum is greater than the parts. So I think that's important
to look at too. And I think for the most part, you do
need dual threat players if you want to get closer to that point per game
mark, unless they can't be a poor playmaker, if they're just a shooter,
and if they just get assists and don't aren't a threat to shoot,
then you just have to be a little bit concerned about that. But for
most of these top guys, you don't worry too much about that. It's
more as you get down in that range we talked about earlier past fifteen where
you're taking some shots either way, like some upside shots. I feel like
we've gotten through those top defensemen, three of the top forwards, plus Kaiden
Lindstrom before we start to come toward our closing here, Hattie, is are
there any other forwards that we really need to talk about as far as some
of your top prospects in this draft? Anybody you not want people to not
hear about when they're hearing about the excited players in this draft. Yeah.
And in terms of players, I'd say I haven't really talked I've gotten much
of a chance to talk about in this episode that I really want people to
know about. I put Miguel Marquez and John Mustard, and in this conversation,
Miguel Marquez is just about as in your face as you can get for
a players undersize it doesn't necessarily play physically, but every chance he gets,
he cuts to them mid all off the rush. Every chance he gets,
he slows down the pace of play, finds a small passing lane and threws
a pass through. And when you give him too much space, he can
just crow and drag it right in the top corner like he's got a fantastic
shot, really great vision and play making, fantastic hands, so the tools
are up there, but he also thinks the game at a high level.
I have him ranked thirty third, but I've watched a lot of him recently
and he's almost definitely going to crack my top twenty five. This is a
player who has got the upside to become a top sixer. John Mustard's a
bit of the same. He's one of the younger players of the class,
another really skillful and creative player with one of the best curl and drags in
the draft. On top of that, I'd say that Mustard has the hints
of a power game. Like he's abled, He's got the frame more or
less right now. He's got the willingness to put his knee out when he's
protecting the puck and drop his shoulder, so the puck protection mechanics are really
good. He's got a lot of pace to him. His skating is really
good as well, so I think that all the tools are there to make
him a power forward. And when you have the skill set that he has
already, like that's a great combination of skills. So I think that he's
another player to keep a look on and end things off with. For me,
he's the best qmjhller of this class. People have Maxim Melci in this
conversation. I think Maxim Malc has a lot of things to work on in
his game that already understands really well. He's a great thinker of the game
offensively and defensively. He's a face off wizard, and on top of that,
he's got a lot of intricacy to his game, Like his playmaking is
fantastic, his vision and transition is great, all the little habits you want
out of a pro he has. He's a player I have ranked thirty six
the overall right now, but I think he can easily and comfortably climb his
way into my first round. I'm a big fan of pretty much every thing
he does, and he's the only player out of the cam jshell right now
that actually gets me excited to talk about the rest of Yeah, they're good,
but there are things here and there and I don't really like that much.
But what all is one guy that I constantly look at and I'm like,
yeah, I like this kid, and overall, yeah, he's just
a really smart, really intelligent, really capable player. In all three zones.
Very good. The other question that I have this is the summary question.
Every draft we go into we say how high is the height? Some
people would probably say, gosh, even your I Slavkovski, even though he
looked like the bestest player that year, you probably were okay going to the
next year because the high heights were not there. How much would I regret
trading a top five pick that could become Macklin Celebrini five years from now.
It depends on your return. I don't know what you got in return for
that trade. But Macklin Celebrini, he's money. Like he's a player who's
going to be a first liner, who's going to be unless he's drafted by
Chicago, going to be the best player on his team. Really good.
And overall, I think that the things that he's good at are so valued
in today's NHL that it's just a matter of time before it becomes your first
life center, your top power play center, and even can throw a shift
or two in on the penalty kill if you're down a goal and you need
a bit of pace and offense and transition. He's got that ability. So
yeah, it depends on what you got in return. But I'd say that
if your first round pick became ceth of Brini, no matter what the return
is, it's not looking the best, that's for sure. Okay, that's
good to know. I live my life with no regrets, and that means
I want to avoid that one. Do you? Why didn't you let people
know? We age? You mentioned it mid show. But once again,
people need to start studying for the test because it's going to come up before
we know it, and you really want to try to enjoy that NHL draft.
Maybe you're cheering for a team where now is already a time when you
need to start thinking about that. Oh, how can people follow all this
work and be prepared for the draft and the rookie drafts to come? Absolutely,
you can start off, I fall daber Prospects anywhere you get your podcasts,
anywhere you like to read stuff. Gabert Prospects a fantastic source for that.
And it's going to start off with our prospect mid season rankings that are
going to be coming out as top sixty four well I believe eighteen honorable mentions.
So we're deepening the class already and looking at a bunch of guys that's
going to be coming up the weekend of after Valentine's Day. The article should
be out by then. You can also follow me on Twitter Hatti k Underscore
Scouting. Everything I post goes there, including the rankings, including the articles,
including the podcast, which I also have myself locked on. NHL Prospects
is also a great source for Prospects content, so make sure to check that
out as well. But Twitter is a one stop shop, so as soon
as the article comes out, if you follow me on Twitter, it's going
to be on your page. Feel fair to check me out there. Headti
Cali Cash, the amazing voice of Dabber Prospects. Thank you so much for
being on the show today and helping us start getting the juices blowing for this
year's NHL draft. Of course, thanks or hating me on Before we get
out of here, a couple things to mention our show. It's brought to
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of a fantasy hockey player as well. Jeremy v Our, lead scout,
you don't necessarily see his impact right now, but believe me, come team
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people doing scouting reports. Jason helping with our prospect ranks. Always more going
on in the ranking space and what Victory is going to put out and things
that are even going to come out in our website that are going to blow
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To hit Victor up in the discord email or X. You can catch
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Victor. You can listen to Victor's other show, Dabber Prospect Radio or Daber
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You're wondering where there's regular content for fantasy hockey prospects, rookies, and then,
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I also do a solo show. It's called Dynasty Sports Life. I
talk all the dynasty sports over there. This week, we're going to talk
about the NBA trade deadline, which wasn't quite as exciting. Hopefully the NHL
trade deadline is a little more exciting, but still changes of value for dynasty
basketball players to know. As we hit the end game over there, tell
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We appreciate the positive feedback and the love because we're here just to help
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